Is the High Street ever going to recover?

I think MOnica is right. High Streets are, and will continue to evolve.
My own medieval town has a big empty space where Debenhams was, but closing the town to traffic at the weekends has made a huge difference to the nature of the town. Many more cafes and bars with outside tables are opening and more local businesses now trading, plus we have a thriving market hall.

What would really help I think would be a return to town centre living, as in European towns, with empty shops converted into residential premises and new town dwellings built.

Online shopping is a pain because often the item is not as it looks and I ve been disappointed a few times with items that are poor quality or not how they look and the last one a U.K. based family business sent me the wrong item it’s too late now to use as a present so got to send it back after Christmas but there’s now a four day strike so nothing going out till 28 th grrrr
Give me a shop anytime unfortunately we are a middle sized town or a large small town and our main shopping centre is decimated Four big nationals gone and lots of smaller ones joining them makes it look empty and the smaller shops being taken over by cafes coffee shops and an odd vape shop

I think we need to start seeing empty shops in town centres being regenerated into offering something else

I visit one town which sounds similar to Calendargirls town! but t's because it is just good at offering something else. I haven't been anywhere else at all and I've ordered everything online (from small local retailers too so not big names)

I don't think the younger generation would want the high street to go back to being as it was 20, 30 or 50 years ago. What they want is service businesses like hairdressers, cafés and leisure activities. Even if they see an item they like in store, they will probably be more likely to go home and order it online because it is usually easier. So shops will carry less stock, meaning they need smaller storage space and fewer staff.

High Streets have been evolving since time began and will continue to evolve. What they will not do, is go back to being what they were 5, 10, 20, 50 years ago.

The previous hikes in Business Rates and the recent huge rise in energy costs will be another blow to small local retailers and impede recovery.

The small town where we lived in France for a while was killed when they built a bypass. Most shops, bars and the hotel closed. This was prior to internet shopping. Many UK towns push cars out of town by excessive charges for parking, inadequate parking spaces and inconvenient park and ride not to mention congestion charges. Many French towns offer free parking over the lunch period to encourage restaurant use - never seen in the UK. My previous local town in the UK had a new supermarket on the edge of town with its own car park - it had a bad effect on the local high street. It's understandable why UK towns act as they do to reduce traffic but it has consequences.

Our local retail shops have been disappearing for many years; I think it started when a huge new shopping mall was built a few miles away.
One by one, useful local shops disappeared, both independents and small branches of national chains.
Then came internet shopping, then lockdowns.

Now our High Street has changed beyond recognition. A few retailers continue but it's cafés, nail bars, charity shops which fill the old premises.

Joseanne

That picture of Peter and Jane brings back happy memories Maw, even though on some occasions I was bored stiff! I suppose proper shopping is no longer a family activity these days.

Yes, I love that picture. Takes me back to my childhood in the 50’s, except Mum didn’t look anything like the glam young mother, I didn’t have blonde plaits or a brother, but I did have a little basket, and our local grocers shop certainly resembled that one.

Halcyon days.

Fleurpepper

Doodledog, our small town has lots of independent shops and cafés- and I try to use them exclusively. What is wrong with turning back the tide. Without people spending money there- be it in cafés, restaurants, shops or market- they will just go to rack and ruin.

But I think the general consensus is that most town centres will - or already have - changed from 10/20 years ago. Many people of all ages like the convenience of shopping online (and you can still support ethical, small businesses online). Our local town centre has few car parks, but good cycle paths and reasonable public transport ( a very green local council). This is ok for me if I want to go into town for a coffee / buy one or two things - but it would be difficult to do a big shop ( and I have no desire, as Doodledog says, to relive the days of trudging around a busy supermarket.

That picture of Peter and Jane brings back happy memories Maw, even though on some occasions I was bored stiff! I suppose proper shopping is no longer a family activity these days.

J52

Forsythia

Our local town has seasalt, John Lewis, Jigsaw, Oliver Bonas, Waterstones, FatFace, White Stuff, Boots, various opticians, several jewellers, various other independents. It was bustling when we went there yesterday and the shops were packed.

Sounds like my local town. Is it MH?

And mine. Anywhere with a Molton Brown and L'Occitane en Provence will have me shopping there.

Fleurpepper

Doodledog, our small town has lots of independent shops and cafés- and I try to use them exclusively. What is wrong with turning back the tide. Without people spending money there- be it in cafés, restaurants, shops or market- they will just go to rack and ruin.

That was my point - they needn't go to wrack and ruin if people want them (I don't, particularly). They could be thriving community hubs if people want that instead, which I would prefer. It seems to me clear that more people don't want retail High Streets or they wouldn't be dying on their feet.

Forsythia

Our local town has seasalt, John Lewis, Jigsaw, Oliver Bonas, Waterstones, FatFace, White Stuff, Boots, various opticians, several jewellers, various other independents. It was bustling when we went there yesterday and the shops were packed.

Sounds like my local town. Is it MH?

J52

I think we’ve definitely seen the end of the department store. In London recently I came across the first high street Ikea. It was two floors and had room settings but large items had to be ordered.
Even John Lewis is struggling. I have shopped mostly in local individual shops this Christmas.

I think IKEA might actually be on to a good thing here and they have obviously done their homework. The store located on King St Hammersmith is in a great location and attracts locals, workers and visitors alike. I popped in a few weeks ago before catching my coach back to the West Country and picked up some candles. It was busy and the café was heaving.
Similarly I was on a bus tour in Vienna City centre at the beginning of this month and what was there on the High Street next to a beautiful Palace and the Klimt Museum but an IKEA store with trees and what I think was accommodation on the top two floors. This must be a model they are looking to bring out to high streets in major cities and I think it could work well.

silverlining48

We live in a historic market town which due to a large well known shopping centre being built years ago has gradually become a run
down place with little of interest; a sad shadow of what it was before.
It’s use it or lose it. Too late for us.

Honestly- don't be defeatist, if locals want their town back, they can get together and work out how to do it- and yes, they can.

People will want independent shops and cafés, and they can be encouraged and supported in coming back. The will of the people can win.

The small town near us has a lovely high street that is always busy. We did have two well known clothing shops but not now and I really miss them as a chance to just browse in peace. Sometimes in the small shops they will not leave you alone and ask you again and again if you need any help.

For a better choice of shops I go into the city centre. Last week I was in London for the first time in 4 years and I'd actually forgotten how busy Oxford Street can be.

Doodledog, our small town has lots of independent shops and cafés- and I try to use them exclusively. What is wrong with turning back the tide. Without people spending money there- be it in cafés, restaurants, shops or market- they will just go to rack and ruin.

Our town does still have a few small shops and friends and I try to support them during the year and at Christmas time but our larger stores have all gone except Primark so at some point we either have to travel to a large shopping centre nearby or go online.

I'd never thought about this, UK versus Continental Europe and very different town centres. But town development was part of my B.Ed.Hons Degree- a real high opener. In France, for instance, the suburbs are considered poor areas, with lots of social housing, crime, immigration, etc, etc. and town centres to be the 'bourgeois/desirable areas. Vive versa here- as said, due to early industrialisation.

I don't enjoy shopping, so will be happy to see more social spaces where retail used to be, and continue to shop online. I think that trying to revive the High Street as we used to know it is like trying to turn back the tide. People like to shop when it suits them, which the internet allows. I would hate to go back to the days of spending every Saturday in Tesco, with 2 small children taken along as I don't drive, so Mr Dog had to come too. Not the best use of my day off at all, and every other family in the world seemed to be in there too, looking equally fed up. Sitting in front of the TV with a cup or glass, and doing a leisurely shop that someone will bring to the door is so much pleasanter, and I did it as soon as online shopping came on stream, meaning I could do things with the family on Saturdays.

I would like to see High Streets become places where people don't have to spend money (although I doubt that councils will subsidise them, so I don't hold out a lot of hope), and places where people of all ages can meet and mingle, with options other than drinking alcohol. Combating loneliness and cutting down on the need to drive everywhere should be priorities for councils, IMO. There could be community hubs where people could go for a chat, mending cafes to take broken items to be fixed, swap shops, classes, places for interest groups to meet and so on. More commercial ventures such as bowling allies and cinemas might find that people will put up with not having the huge choice offered by a multiplex in return for being able to walk there and stop off for a drink or food that is not necessarily in the sort of fast food place that is usually next to cinemas. Small independent shops could still sell Etsy-type items, maybe in little market-style outlets where vendors could share the working hours.

I rather wish that High Streets would hurry up and go, so that there is a difference between living in town A and town B - these days there is often nothing to choose between them, as they all have similar chains.

Completely agree Fleur

Perhaps the second time Continental towns in Europe will learn from British mistakes. The first time was with the early industrialisation of GB- with all the pollution, noise, dirts, etc, that it brought. The better off fleed to the suburbs, hopefully up the hill and towns were terrible places to be.

European towns saw this, and as they industrialised in turn, they put the industries out of town, and kept the town centres for themselves- with the better off residing right in town.

And I, for one, will be desperately sad, to lose our town centres. And the UK has to realise it will be the only country to follow in this trend with the USA.

Continental town centres will survive, as they are loved and cherished by locals, and on-line shopping has just not taken over (at least yet).

I doubt we shall see a resurgence in the High Street generally. Prices are higher than online, the range of goods on offer is narrower, most shops don't deliver and they are not open 24/7. Although I enjoy bookshops they can't possibly carry the stock that online sellers like Amazon can carry. Estate agents are in partial competition with the big onliners like Rightmove. We may see more personal service shops like coffee shops, nail bars, hairdressers, etc., but high rents and business rates will kill many of them. More shops will become residential. The very poor will likely rely on local shops if they cannot afford broadband.